There is cause to celebrate over at Nintendo today. It was announced that sales for the Nintendo Switch have officially gone on to surpass those of the original Super Nintendo, which is one of Nintendo’s most successful consoles of all time.
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It seems as though there’s no stopping the Switch. It has sold 52.48 million consoles, as of the end of 2019. A large majority of these sales were the original Switch model. That includes the latest model with an improved battery life and accounts for a whopping 47.3 million overall sales. The Switch Lite, launched last September, has sold 5.19 million units, as well.
The last financial quarter of 2019 was particularly strong for Nintendo. They announced that in that time period alone, the company moved 10.8 million consoles, worldwide. Sales projections for the remainder of Nintendo’s financial year have now been increased from the originally projected 18 million consoles to 19.5 million, all by the end of March.
How does this compare to Nintendo’s past success?
The Super Nintendo, which was released in 1991, sold 49.1 million consoles throughout its entire life cycle. While the Switch has now edged that out, it’s also worth noting that the Switch is a mere 34 months into its own life cycle, which could be indicative of bigger things to come.
Nintendo’s best-selling device of all time was the Nintendo DS, which has sold 154.02 million units. After that, you’ve for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, which together moved 118.69 million devices. The Wii is still the highest selling console in the history of Nintendo, at 101.63 million units.
The original Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1983, is the next major hurdle for the Switch to overcome. That console sold 61.91 million units.
Of course, the Switch has already left a few of its predecessors in the dust. It easily surpassed the Wii U, at 13.56 million consoles, the Nintendo GameCube with 21.74 million units, and the Nintendo 64 with 32.92 million consoles sold.
The Switch is a revolutionary product, featuring the long-sought after feature of going from TV-based HD console to a handheld device. The portability and flexibility of the Switch is one of the reasons why it has performed so well.
And it’s not just the hardware for this console that has sold exceptionally. Switch games have proven to be huge sellers, with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate becoming the highest selling fighting game of all time in under one year, beating out Street Fighter 2. On top of that, Pokemon Sword and Shield have sold more than 15 million copies, just a month and a half after their release.
